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Saturday, July 9, 2011

I SAW THE DEVIL (and I Liked It - The Taste of Her Cherry Chapstick)

So I Saw The Devil. The opening scene with late 70's retro latin music makes me think I'm about to be forced into a very David Lynch situation. Especially when people first order you a tow truck then proceed to sing you a lullaby. This is my first Korean (North or South) Horror film. I realize that pictures like The Tale of Two Sisters and The Uninvited may well be worth the watch, but HorrorHound told me I would enjoy THIS one and I'm loyal to the Hound.

This flick has torture porn written all over it. Eli Roth probably advised on the open kill sequence. I don't want to ruin it, but it's his gritty style. Well its his or James Wan's, but definitely looks more like Hostel. Those gloves. Those boots. Hostel-esque. Has a bit of Guinea Pig stuff up its ass as well only quite a bit more plot thick; Has Save the Green Planet casting its shadow over it as well. Oh, and by the by... if I'm a fucked up killer/kidnapper and you tell me you're pregnant, that's probably the equivalent of a two for one sale on soda pop at the quickie mart. Best to keep that to yourself. It's a horror rule. She who plays the pregnancy card is doomed to lose all her chips. Painfully.

Basic idea is that man and woman are in love. Woman gets brutally murdered. Man enacts his own version of vigilante justice in a bad ass motherfucka kind of way. Brutal. Perhaps all I can say is that no one's every seen underwear like that and when they did, no balls have ever seen a pipe wrench like that. That's the level of brutality we're talking about. Its like inverse torture porn. The good guy gets to kill everyone in creative ways for truth, justice and the South Korean way... but he does so creatively and thus the kills visually benefit the audience's libido i.e. torture porn for nice guys (not you demented fucks). I guess there's kills on both sides of the force that might equate to the ol' T.P., but at least there's some friggin' balance between good and evil for a change. Horror is at its best filmmakers drop the pretention that humans react righteously to horrific events. Cases in point: Last House on the Left and I Spit On Your Grave.

Slow moving picture with good intentions, creative kills and a loveable, vigilante good guy. Throw in a skeavy pervert bad guy, give the film the running time of the Godfather and you have yourself my first Korean horror film. Seems like quite a bit of this could have ended up on the cutting room floor.

There's a little reverse Hitcher/John Ryder going on there too. Check it out to enjoy the carnage, the novelty and the inverted TP (again... torture porn, not toilet paper).

Most important question of the movie: Who do you think won?

-Dr. Terror

You know you just can't stab a guy too many times, can ya? It's not like you need to reload a knife.

From the bowels and brains of American International to the rib cage and eye sockets of Amicus, Doc Terror will write your eyes shut from the prehistory to the post apocalypse of horror.Doc Terror is a contributor to The Liberal Dead and The Dead Air Podcast.